This definitely was geared more towards teens. It was not an easy listen. Typically I enjoy YA books even as an adult, but this one felt very juvenile. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who enjoys the occasional light read.

The characters were sweet and fun. The narrator did a great job with them.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape for the ARC audiobook.

Wow. That was truly awful. I read it so you don't have to and I'm gonna convince you of that.

Let's start with quotes:

• "If a boy took me on a date and didn't try and kiss me I'd think he's a frigid weirdo"
•"I don't think it's natural to be honest" (about not kissing on a first date)
• it's not the 19th century why didnt you make out on your first date (paraphrased)
• is it even a date if you didn't kiss (paraphrased)
• about being single: "why would you want to advertise that no one wants you?"
• girl on girl hate. Are we still doing this?
• "you're in a relationship! People have to know or what's the point
• very questionable moment where the MC makes fun of her Polish friends name and says she's "surprised even Polish people can spell it correctly". The xenophobia is pointed out but not apologized for
•also regarding her supposedly best friend who is Polish. All we know about her is that she puts up with the MCs bullshit and is Polish. That's literally it. The MC continuously refers to her as her "Slavic Sagittarius" and makes comments about her being from Poland.
• "her snot probably tastes like honey" this is just gross and it's mentioned like 4 times in a few paragraphs
• SUPER lesbophobic jokes and content within the friend group "weird lesbian crushes" etc
• aggressive use of "Uber" and "uberliscious"
• oh look, another mention of "dying alone" literally they're 14 years old and it's mentioned multiple times about how dying alone is the worst thing ever.

Okay, so if that didn't deter you, let's dig in a bit.

Beyond the extreme aphobia that's never once challenged or noted as being problematic, every single character in this is insufferable. There is not one character that was pleasant or friendly or redeemable.

I get that they're teenagers but this was on another level of ignorant selfish bullying.

So our MC, Cat, is part of the popular group at school. The group consists of her supposedly best friend who is Polish, the Regina George mean Girl Siobhan, the girl she's in love with Allison Bridgewater, and like two or three other people that I could not tell you what their names are to save my life. I feel like the only character who could have been okay is the Polish friend but honestly the fact that all I can say about her is that she's Polish and that she occasionally calls out Cat for being an asshole is a problem. She has no other defining traits and continuously participates in and contributes to all of the bullying.

So Cat is in love with Allison Bridgewater and don't forget her name and you won't be able to because for 90% of this book every time she's mentioned by our MC, it's her full name. It is obnoxious. Anyway Cat is in love with Allison but Allison does not know and is straight. Cat decides to date a boy for a minute and that doesn't go well and when she starts to get feelings for the weird obviously queer girl at school who their group relentlessly bullies, she has to rethink some things because weird queer girl is a Gemini and you never trust a Gemini. I don't know why either okay It's just a thing apparently. So anyway I really thought that Morgan was going to be a redeemable character but she's not. She's okay for the first 85% of this book and then she apologizes for something that was not her fault and forgives Cat and they're happily ever after even though Cat is an asshole.

This entire book consists of a popular friend group at school who bullies everyone else around them including each other and ties all of their self-worth to whether or not boys like them and if they're going to die alone.

So if you go back to the quotes some of the problematic moments are addressed but they're not really resolved if that makes sense. With the exception of the aphobia, which is ignored because of course it is, the xenophobia is slightly addressed but not resolved and the lesbophobia is addressed and partially resolved to a shitty standard. Basically super mean girl apologizes for making the jokes and how she wouldn't have made the jokes if she had known Cat was a lesbian and then they're friends again but that is not an acceptable apology or awareness of why it was wrong in the first place.

Anyway, besides it being problematic, the writing, plot, and storytelling is so bad. It's so juvenile and I realize this book is targeted towards 14-year-olds but I would be insulted to read this as a 14-year-old. It is so childish and vapid and I just don't think that this generation of teenagers is going to go for this shit. This book really makes some assumptions about the intelligence level of 14-year-olds and I just really don't think they're out there saying "uberlicious" every five sentences.

I do want to make a comment about the aphobia and the queerophobia. In this author's bio she talks about how she's writing LGBTQ+ stories that are not trauma-led and that was one of the things that made me so excited about this story. I would argue that this book is traumatic. There is not a big gay bashing scene but there are so many problematic moments that are not resolved and there is so much bullying. I cannot even handle how full of insults and mean girl bullshit this book was. I didn't have a physical copy but I would bet that there is at least one insult every three to four pages. At a minimum. If you went through and averaged it out I bet there's an insult every page. It is ridiculous and disappointing.

Regarding the aphobia, this author knows that ace people exists because in their bio they say LGBTQ+. They acknowledge the plus. We are here. To have such blatant comments about someone's validity being based on their relationship status is problematic. To have comments that say someone who doesn't kiss on the first date is a weirdo. I also feel like this is slightly dangerous ground to put into the heads of 14-year-olds. Especially with the lackluster sex education curriculum around the globe, to plant this idea that you must be physically intimate with another person as soon as humanly possible is not a good look.

Honestly I should have DNF'd this at 15% when the aphobia hit but for some reason I decided to just continue and I wish I didn't because I am enraged at this book. If I could give it zero stars I would but I'm going to give it one so that it drops the rating a little bit.

Do not be fooled by the cover. This book is not good.

DNF 34% in but I don't think that this is necessarily a bad read.

Firstly, this cover is absolutely gorgeous and I can see why this would be a eye-catching book for many teens. Secondly, I don't have any problems necessarily with the writing beyond one glaring detail. It is absolutely cringe-worthy teen behavior. Some teens are awkward and get in their own way and believe their problems to be the end of the world. I think this book can be good and interesting for someone. Just not me. The secondhand embarrassment was too great and I simply could not go on. All the best to this author and I hope the people this story is for find it.

the amount of second hand embarrassment i got listening to this book is just crazy. like why must Cat always find herself in those kind of situations? why did she feel the need to snoop inside Morgan’s house? it’s that kind of stupid decisions that just make me hate a book. i didn’t hate it, i think it’s great to have books targeted towards a younger audience that address homosexuality so openly but OMG were these teenagers annoying! please, stop! why didn’t cat tell jaime she didn’t want to be with him? i know, so he wouldn’t be embarrassed but still! he put himself in this situation, it’s his problem. and don’t even get me started on the friend group, they were insufferable. the only tolerable characters were morgan and allison, and even then, cat’s interaction were just soooo cringe, no teen is that obsessed with someone! credit where credit is due though, i loved the narrator and i think i prefer british accent in audiobooks to be honest. 2.5⭐️

4.25/5

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This was such an adorable and cheesy coming of age novel. I loved all the references to astrology.

i was pleasantly surprised that in a genre that avoids it like the plague, this book used the word “lesbian” so frequently. it was refreshing and i hope it serves as an example to other books in the genre.

this book was sweet, but i felt like it was constantly falling over itself to force awkward moments rather than expanding on characters or relationships. i know this is meant for a younger audience than i am, but i have a sister the same age as the main character and know that even she would find the writing juvenile. when writing middle grade or teen fiction, you can’t simply assume that your readers are less intelligent than you, because chances are good that the eleven year old picking up the book you wrote would score higher on a vocab quiz than the authors of most middle grade fiction.

anyway this cover is absolutely gorgeous and i love it dearly, i’d probably buy the book just for the cover when it comes out if they sold more than the same three gay books in the bookstores in my city.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc of this in exchange for this honest review.

The cover for this is stunning, which is also why I requested it, yet the book itself didn’t really catch my attention. I found I didn’t particularly care about the characters and that they lacked death depth. It was sweet enough I suppose, but lacked anything to fully immerse me.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape media for the free ALC in exchange for my honest review. Really wanted to LOVE this audiobok but hard to concentrate when the narrator voice was a full adult voice and made it kess believable. The story was quirky and a wild ride.